“Such a waste!” was my immediate reaction to myself. Yet it seems so sensible and logical at the time of purchase.

I work with my clients on using such marketing techniques to their clients. You would think that I won’t fall for the ploy of others. Sadly no.

All of us share one thing in common, we prefer to avoid pain and gain pleasure.

The instinct can be so strong that Emotion takes over and Logic is shut out.

The emotion was screaming …

“I would be losing money if I do not buy now“.

“If I don’t buy now, they may not offer such a good deal again.”

And to avoid feeling guilty and to feel more comfortable, we start to give ourselves plenty of reasons to justify the buying impulse.

“It is so much more economic (translate: cheaper) to buy a family pack. I use this a lot, so it is going to be a huge saving.”

“It is a much bigger bottle which means it will last longer, and that means I don’t have to make 2 trips.”

The reasons were logical and seemingly sensible. Except that the reasons were there to justify the purchase after the Emotion convinced our minds to do so.

The moral of the story is, your clients buy because his emotion tells him to and then he justifies his purchase with reasons. It is not the other way around. When you can appeal to your clients’ emotional hunger, he will be lapping it up.

5 Replies to “Buying Decision – Emotion or Logic?”

you make an interesting point and I agree that, at the time of the purchase, emotion takes over logic. But I think you miss something here: were your things in the bathroom unopened? I believe not. So there’s a difference between buying a product that we actually don’t need at all (that would prove your theory) and buying a product that we use for a while until it expires or we get bored. So my guess is that emotion has a logic of itself.

Hi Lloyd
I did open up the toiletry stuff I bought, so since I did consume them, they were logical purchase. The emotional part was buying the Family Packs instead of the Standard Packs! I, me and myself were the only ones consuming those products. Had I been totally logical, I would know I will not use them up before expiry date. Alas, greed took over :P

I agree, if you will be using it for yourself, better get a standard pack and not a family pack, it will just be a waste of money. Be practical too, just get the products that you will be able to consume yourself.